Mobile Marketing

Visible, the prepaid, no-contract mobile service from Verizon is continuing to embrace guerilla advertising strategies to promote its brand, which features a $40/month plan.

Beginning March 15, Visible and agency Madwell are overhauling a number of bus stops in the West Hollywood section of Los Angeles with imagery designed to look like stadium bleachers, movie theaters, ski lifts, bathrooms, and campsites. This “Phone Service From Anywhere” concept promotes the app-based service and the pitch that people can even sign up, well, from anywhere.

Earlier, Visible and Madwell introduced the InVisible pop-up activation in New York City and launched the “404 Not Found” OOH campaign.

How Sportswear Brands Like Nike Are Motivating Customers With Dynamic, Community-Focused Fitness

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Sportswear retailers and fitness brands in New York are engaging shoppers’ larger lifestyle needs with innovative services and experiences that leverage personalization, convenience and community. Mobile apps and sensored-enabled technologies make the in-store experience more tailored and responsive, enabling shoppers to choose the products that best fit their fitness goals.

In-store community spaces and events provide an inclusive platform for like-minded fans to gather in celebration of their sport, allowing the store to broaden its position from outfitter to holistic lifestyle partner. As detailed in PSFK’s New York Retail Innovation Guide, here’s how six sportswear retailers and fitness brands are assisting shoppers in achieving their health goals by investing in wellness and community-oriented products, events and immersive experiences:

Nike House of Innovation 000
Nike’s 68,000-square-foot flagship store on Fifth Avenue is fueled by its mobile app and its NikePlus program, offering features like ‘member-only’ hours, instant checkout and free delivery. The app also lets customers take mobile photos of QR codes on mannequins to have items placed in dressing rooms. The store features a Speed Shop where shoppers can quickly purchase popular products, which are informed by purchase data from local shoppers. There is a Sneaker Bar, where shoppers can customize their shoes, and a Sneaker Lab, showcasing the largest collection of Nike footwear worldwide. The top floor houses the Nike Expert Studio, where NikePlus Members can book appointments with in-store experts.

Adidas
The athletic retailer’s flagship location highlights its sports-centric culture rather than its gear, immersing visitors in “stadium retail concept” featuring an in-store track and bleachers for customers to watch live sports games. Customers can also customize shoes with NYC-only options and use a fitting application, Run Genie, to find the perfect shoe based on their unique running gait.

REI
Outdoor gear retailer REI extends the experience of its brand through outdoor events such as sunset hikes, adventure skiing, and forest therapy sessions. Tours leave by bus and foster a sense of community within the REI customer base, which also has access to classes and workshops in store.

“Our mission has always been enabling and awakening that lifelong love [of the outdoors]. We aim to really focus intentionally around solving problems for customers and our members of today, in the world we live in today with all the distractions, and dizziness and presence of technology.”
—Ben Steele. EVP, REI

Rapha Clubhouse Rapha mixes hospitality, food & beverage and retail. The Italian-themed bicycle gear retailer positions its stores as clubhouses, where cycling enthusiasts can gather and celebrate the sport in an in-store cafe and bar, gallery space and mechanic’s workshop. Offering annual memberships alongside upscale gear and accessories, members can access an ongoing program of weekly bike rides, watch key seasonal races or hang out with other enthusiasts.

NBA Store
The National Basketball Association redesigned its Times Square retail location to accommodate individuals on the autism spectrum and other sensory disabilities, with specially trained employees and sensory-inclusive spaces.

Roula
High-end bike rental service Roula’s flagship location serves as a gathering space for cycling enthusiasts, with a café to offer pre-ride fuel and a selection of recovery-focused products to help them post-ride. Roula offers a bike rental service for hotel guests, which includes a fit specialist to make sure that the bike is dialed into riders’ exact specifications, and riders can determine the time and place to have their bikes delivered and picked up. Roula also leads guided rides in NYC and beyond.

Activewear is not the only vertical experimenting with innovative services and experiences in New York. For more about how leaders from all categories in the city are breaking new ground in experiential retail, see PSFK’s New York Retail Innovation Guide, available for download now.

Sportswear retailers and fitness brands in New York are engaging shoppers’ larger lifestyle needs with innovative services and experiences that leverage personalization, convenience and community. Mobile apps and sensored-enabled technologies make the in-store experience more tailored and responsive, enabling shoppers to choose the products that best fit their fitness goals.

In-store community spaces and events provide an inclusive platform for like-minded fans to gather in celebration of their sport, allowing the store to broaden its position from outfitter to holistic lifestyle partner. As detailed in PSFK’s New York Retail Innovation Guide, here’s how six sportswear retailers and fitness brands are assisting shoppers in achieving their health goals by investing in wellness and community-oriented products, events and immersive experiences:

TV ads will break Sunday during the 91st Oscars, featured within an insulated commercial pod during the ABC broadcast. The media was planned by Marriott One Media, a dedicated unit within Publicis Groupe.

The spots are directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet in conjunction with Marriott Creative and Content Marketing and the agency Observatory Marketing. Two-time Oscar-winner Janusz Kaminski is overseeing the cinematography.

The vignettes within each spot were filmed at Marriott International properties including The Westin Golf Resort & Spa Playa Conchal, Sheraton Grand Hotel, Dubai and the Courtyard by Marriott Sedona. Each hotel vignette shares the joy of good travel using one word, “Bonvoy,” and the tag line "Rewards Reimagined.”

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The campaign also includes digital video, mobile, print, social media, out of home, and cinema, as well as special events and member access to partner experiences around passion points like sports and entertainment.

The campaign will span 22 countries throughout the year and will take advantage of major cultural events to further showcase the new travel program around the world. Besides the U.S., it will run in Asia, Europe, North America and South America.

Marriott is bolstering its roster of experiential marketing partners by entering into a multiyear agreement with Premier League powerhouse Manchester United Football Club. Marriott Bonvoy branding will appear prominently on ground-level "digiboards" within Old Trafford stadium and will be visible during globally televised matches. Marriott Bonvoy members can bid points for access to a branded luxury suite within the stadium to enjoy great views of the pitch and be treated to VIP hospitality.

Member experiences which can be won by bidding points on Marriott Bonvoy Moments include access to this year's Oscars, with red-carpet viewing seats to see the stars walk into the awards, tickets to the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 27th annual Academy Awards Viewing Party featuring a performance by The Killers, and an invite to the exclusive after-party hosted by Vanity Fair.

The brand is also planning to offer elevated hospitality at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival taking place this April. Highlights of the activation include a branded member lounge, VIP dinner in the Rose Garden, behind-the-scenes tours and VIP viewing.

It's a nuance in strategy, but on Wednesday Google announced the rebranding of its Universal App campaigns to App campaigns.

For some reason, the company simply wanted to drop the word “Universal.” This move requires no action from marketers and will not affect campaign features or functions.

App campaigns will join Search, Display, Video, Shopping and Smart as the top-level campaign names available in Google Ads. Perhaps they ran out of characters.

App campaigns -- which has helped drive more than 17 billion app installs, according to Google’s internal 2019 data -- uses machine-learning technology. It aims to help marketers find the most important users based on the brand’s predetermined business goals across Google Search, Play, YouTube, and more than three million sites and apps.

Companies are constantly rebranding products and services. Google rebranded AdWords to Ads. Toys “R” Us plans to relaunch under a new brand name Tru Kids, focused on ecommerce and technology. Samsung’s Android Store rebranded to Galaxy Apps. Groupon will rebrand its Groupon+ service. It’s not always the name that gets a rebrand.

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Walmart wants to rebrand the company as the most trusted.

Google says that during the next month, marketers will begin to see changes. The plan is to talk more about it at the Game Developers Conference in mid-March.

has released what it is calling its biggest magazine issue ever, dedicated to the Academy Awards, while

USA Today

has released an augmented reality experience around the costumes of Oscar-nominated movies.

The theme of The Hollywood Reporter’s issue is "The Politics of Oscar," with a cover story on this awards season’s embroilment with political issues, leaving it with no host for Sunday's show.
The Hollywood Reporter’s 2018 Oscars issue was also tagged as its largest ever, at 200 pages, and the year before that, at 188. (THR's weekly print magazine typically averages between 80 and 110 pages.)

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The cover photo features an illustration of the Oscar award, holding a flag, and covered in stickers representing a number of social and political movements: #MeToo, #Resist, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rainbow, the Mexican and United States flags, Time's Up, March for Our Lives, among others.

Out today, The Hollywood Reporter's annual Oscars issue has 222 pages, and about 130 of those pages are ads.

Brands want to appear in the issue because “it is our most high profile of the year,” THR editorial director Matthew Belloni told Publishers Dailylast year.

The experience is a collaboration between USA Today’s emerging technology team and its Life team.

Outfits from the movies are available to explore in the AR experience, which went live in USA Today’s Android and iOS app Monday.

It gives users a 360-degree look at the costumes, in users' own homes, with mobile AR technology. (Think Pokemon Go-style, where you can see the costumes as if they were in your living room.)

It also includes interview bites from each costume designer, including Sandy Powell (“The Favorite,” “Mary Poppins Returns”) and Ruth E. Carter of “Black Panther.”

“Unlike many other AR experiences, our goal wasn’t to use AR to tell part of the story. Our AR experience is the story,” stated Ray Soto, director of emerging tech at the USA Today Network. “With multiple layers of interactivity between the user and the costume designers, audiences can glean an almost one-on-one experience with the creators of their favorite costumes from these Oscar-nominated films.”

USA Today’s first AR release this year was in January, featuring an experience with Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson and an interview about his professional hockey player career.

Over a dozen emerging technology projects are in the works for 2019 at USA Today Network.

L’Oréal has tapped artificial intelligence to create a digital skin diagnostic for consumers, which are being launched on the brand’s websites.

The new technology is based on an AI-powered algorithm developed by ModiFace, which L’Oréal acquired last year.

The first application of the deep-learning technology is called Vichy SkinConsult, which provides women with a tailored diagnostic in three steps.

A woman uploads a selfie to the brand’s website and the technology then detects and analyzes different aging signs, such as under-eye wrinkles and dark spots. The system then sends a personalized product routine to address specific skin priorities.

“With the acquisition of ModiFace, we have started a second phase of L’Oréal’s digital transformation, focused on reinventing the beauty experience through technologies such as voice, AR and AI,” stated Lubomira Rochet, chief digital officer of L’Oréal. “We believe that services will be the new gateways for discovering our brands and products.”

The diagnostic system was trained using 6,000 clinical images from L’Oréal evaluation and knowledge studies, resulting in a new model of more than 4,500 smartphone selfies.

A redesign of Travian Games’ email led to a big increase in response rates and revenues, and the company’s CRM and email marketing manager\ explained how on Wednesday at MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit Europe in Austria.

Radu Neag said he first analyzed new and old players and set out to improve email layouts from flat and standard to those using the latest techniques, including interactivity and the hybrid approach.

In the case of Travian’s Rail Nation game, Neag studied where his players opened emails and on which platforms. Most are via Gmail, he found.

Using Litmus, which provides a suite of email design and email marketing tools, Neag codes his own emails. “If you have a general rule in email marketing, if you have a Constitution, the first article is to keep optimizing, keep testing, keep changing. Changes are good.”

In the new email, he uses two calls to action, one at the top and one in the middle with an offer to redeem and incentive. Taking the hybrid approach to localize 19 languages, he created a template using dynamic content based on the player’s language preference.

Neag found the new email gave Travian Games a 50% increase in sales, an 8% increase in activations and a 37% increase in the click rate. Based on those results, he did the same for his other email templates. Of his results, Litmus said that, “In 2018, behind-the-scenes improvements came together to transform the entire email experience, bringing interactivity not just to the email message but also to the inbox itself—and turning both into conversion channels.”

When Travian launches new trains, Neag uses image carousels as well as cascading style sheets (CSS) to create interactivity. Overall uplift in those revamped campaigns include 23% in the click rate and 35% in the CTO rate.

Neag showed how he uses storytelling to introduce a new mobile game, giving the user a hands-on perspective directly from the email. Results of such storytelling versus the classic promo email include a 45% click rate hike and a 100% CTO rate (mostly because the last CTA asks the user to continue the race).

He says that with all the CSS possibilities, he can be creative, coding with new and more approaches.

He summarized his presentation thusly:

Improve/increase revenues and reactivating by redesign because it works

Have you ever wanted to embed feedback in your email strategy? Of course, you have. Well, it seems the Dutch have already found a way to do it. It’s called Close Alert and it is really popular in Holland.

“I take the time to read and monitor our emails. We have Close Alert,” she said. “I use it a lot to really get to know what my message does to my audience. You can learn so many small things about your audiences.”

Moderator Kath Pay, CEO & Founder of Holistic Email Marketing, called it a “Dutch solution. It’s really popular in Holland. In the UK, TfL (Transport for London) has started using it. It’s a smiley, happy face type of thing.”

Hans Groen, Manager Email Marketing & Marketing Automation at KPN, a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, said his company uses Close Alert as well.

“It is helpful for getting to know your customers with direct feedback within two minutes of sending out a campaign. You might see something like, ‘Whoa, it’s not working on this device.’” It’s easy to then make changes.”

WPP and Waze said today they are collaborating on efforts to make it simpler for retail brands to run campaigns on Waze, the social navigation app owned by Google, which has over 100 million monthly active drivers globally.

The partnership, designed to direct drivers to retail locations via in-route messaging, will launch in Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States this year.

Samuel Keret, Global Director of Waze Ads, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate closely with WPP and its global client base, sharing best practice and creating optimal solutions to drive in-store foot traffic for WPP’s many consumer product clients.”

Keret added, “This is the first collaborative relationship Waze has undertaken with agency partners to explore and identify shopper marketing-specific creative solution needs.”

After running a test with Volkswagen and the publisher EL PAÍS, Google announced Wednesday it will now serve advertisements built for AMP HTML -- which are ads built using the Accelerated Mobile Pages framework -- and on regular web pages too.

In the past year the share of Google-served display AMP HTML ads rose from 1% to 12%. This could be because the framework addresses performance and security concerns. In addition, ads load faster in AMP, and they require less resources.

An estimate from eMarketer released Wednesday shows U.S. advertisers will spend more than $129 billion on digital advertising in 2019, compared with the $109 billion they plan to spend on traditional advertising including television, newspapers and radio. In the U.S., about 37.2% will be spent with Google, per eMarketer.

Making ads that are faster and require fewer resources improves the user experience and appears to increase the advertiser's return on investment as well as the publisher's revenue.

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Tests suggest that moving from a standard HTML page to an AMP page, with the same HTML5 ad, produces a 26% increase in click-through rate (CTR). Moving that same ad to an AMP page with AMPHTML ads results in an additional 48% increase in CTR, according to Google.

Volkswagen and the publication EL PAÍS worked with creative agency DDB and media agency PHD to improve the user experience for consumers who could potentially purchase one of the cars in the 2019 Tiguan TDI 150 R-Line.

The auto manufacturer tested AMP technology for their landing page and the ads that would drive users from the web into showrooms. EL PAÍS had to configure four line items in their ad server, featuring a 2×2 combination of ads, AMP vs. non-AMP and creative type AMPHTML vs. HTML ads. This allowed them to compare the performance characteristics. They also tested two types of landing pages -- HTML and AMP.

The tests increased conversion rates by 76% with the first end-to-end AMP campaign, according to a recently published case study. While the CTR rose 87%, the cost per acquisition fell by 43% and conversions rose 76%.

Google said it will soon add Display & Video 360 support to deliver AMP HTML ads to AMP pages as the company continues to invest in improving the experience for users.

Once mobile app support launches in the second quarter of 2019, advertisers can transition to creating one AMP HTML ad to have it render across all environments and devices.